Sam and Rosa Dillon completed a heist with Leonard Snart. The latter told them to lay low but they refused. Leonard approached them and Sam told Snart that without him and Rosa, Snart would still be kicking down liquor stores. Sam was told that his version of reality was warped. Sam decided he wanted out and Snart tried to shoot him. Sam disarmed Snart but was quickly defeated and thrown against a mirror. Sam crawled to another nearby mirror where he was nearly killed by Snart, before the latter fled when the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator blew up. Sam was hit by the dark matter and vanished.[1]
Becoming Mirror Master[]
Sam escapes his mirror prison.
Three years later, when Broome Industries was being cleaned up, Sam grabbed a worker by the throat and emerged from the mirror. Sam proceeded to demand where Snart was.
Sam asked an old lackey of Snart of his whereabouts, though the man was unsure. Upset, Sam told him he would find someone who does, as he threw him into a mirror and out a nearby window, sending him falling out of the two story building, though the man survived.
Sam and Rosa plan to rule Central City together.
Later, Sam broke Rosa out of Iron Heights Prison. Sam explained to Rosa he was trapped in a mirror and only escaped the previous night. Sam was told that it had been three years and a lot has changed. Sam asked Rosa if she was affected also and told her to show him her abilities. After demonstrating her crippling vertigo abilities to him, Sam told her they could take down Snart. Sam was then told that Snart was long gone, though Sam they could still be who they want to be and be in control.
Sam and Rosa robbed First National Bank. As they were leaving, they were approached by the Flash and Jesse Quick. Sam and Rosa escaped using reflective materials, climbing a building using reflections. After the Flash came to Jesse's aid, Sam used the distraction to throw the Flash into a mirror, trapping him.
Sam defeated by The Flash.
At Broome Industries, Sam was called by "Snart". Scudder and Rosa approached him at an abandoned amusement park. Sam told Snart that things had changed and it was his and Rosa's town now. Sam told Snart that his cold gun wouldn't stop him as Sam tried to use a mirror to attack Snart from behind. Sam quickly learned it was only a hologram of Snart as he turned around to see the Flash. Sam was eventually trapped in a circle of mirrors, creating an infinite reflective loop utilizing a property known as the Droste effect. Defeated, Sam was handcuffed by the Flash and taken into custody. Sam was later incarcerated in Iron Heights, and placed in a cell with no reflective surfaces in order to prevent any attempts at escape.[1]
In what is now an erased future on Earth-1, Mirror Master and Top have taken over the Central City underworld and do as they please as the Flash had retired. They encounter his younger self, who they have been mistaken for being the 2024 version of the Flash.[4] However, this future timeline has been erased considering that in this timeline, the Flash did not stop Savitar until 2020/2021, as opposed to 2017 in the current timeline.
New multiverse[]
When Iris was trapped in the Mirrorverse after Crisis by a new mirror-based villain named Eva McCulloch, she mentioned that Team Flash once fought Scudder and used coldness to neutralize his powers. However, when she tried to freeze the mirror to escape, she failed.[5]
At some point, Eva McCulloch created a mirror duplicate of Sam who worked for Black Hole; she destroyed this being in front of Rosa while claiming that it was her first creation. The whereabouts of the original Sam Scudder are unknown.[6]
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
Meta-human physiology: After Sam was struck by the energy of the particle accelerator explosion, this altered his DNA and supercharged his cells, augmenting his physiology into allowing him to access his powers.[1]
Sam can link Einstein-Rosen bridges to anything with high solar reflectance, allowing him to essentially create wormholes, or portals, through any reflective surface within a separate existence, allowing him to traverse areas at great speed at roughly Mach 13.2. Inside the pocket realm, time apparently passes very slowly (if at all); Sam claimed three years felt only overnight for him, which also keeps him from aging all the while. He can use this power on others, able trap them within the mirror's surface or teleport them. Speedsters are unable to phase through these reflection wormholes due to the molecules being in hyper state of flux. When combined with the vertigo-inducing powers of Rosa Dillon, Sam could create reflection portals around others that appeared as a kaleidoscopic landscape, allowing him to imprison others in his portals without the need for a reflective surface. He could even use his powers within a meta-human power-dampening cell at Iron Heights Prison when he broke Rosa free.[1]
Expert thief: Sam is an excellent thief, having successfully pulled off multiple heists with his girlfriend, Rosa Dillon. Rosa and Scudder even apparently helped Leonard Snart move up from "kicking down liquor stores".[1]
Weaknesses[]
Extreme cold: Because Sam's powers works on stimulating the molecules of the surface into a hyper state of flux, by reducing the surface temperature to low enough levels, the mirror prison can potentially be shattered from within by using enough vibrational force, like one produced by a speedster.[1]
Droste effect: When surrounded by too many reflections facing one another, creating an infinite reflective loop, Sam will be unable to travel through the mirrors at all.[1]
Ground or faced-down mirrors: If Sam is using a mirror lying flat on the ground, or perhaps obscured of light, he cannot escape from it.[1]
Resonance field disruption: The resonance field of Sam's portals can be mimicked through the use of a device made by Cisco Ramon, which could allow them to be disabled, thereby nullifying his powers. This also reversed the refraction effect of Sam's partner, Rosa Dillon, which had allowed him to create portals without a reflective surface.[4]
Scudder's outfit, while not a "super" one, did have some subtle winks, with it being made of reflective materials, such as his satin shirt or his tie and pocket square having a sheen to them.
Scudder is actually weaker than his successor as Mirror Master, Eva McCulloch, who can control mirrors with even greater versatility.
Behind the scenes[]
In the DC comics, Sam Scudder is Mirror Master, a member of the Rogues and an enemy of The Flash. His successor after his death in Crisis is Evan McCulloch.
The concept of Scudder being a meta-human is based around the New 52 where the Rogues underwent a special procedure that merged them with their weapons, allowing them to use their weapon's abilities on their own. However, it went awry and Sam was trapped in a Mirror Dimension as on the show.
Ironically, in the comics, Scudder studied mirrors and how to weaponize them, while Evan McCulloch was a regular criminal who just happened to get Scudder’s tech. Meanwhile, on the show, Eva McCulloch was the one who studied mirrors and how to weaponize them, while Scudder was a regular criminal who just happened to get mirror powers.
